Review: Tic Toc Escapes - Night at the Mausoleum

RATING: 3 Keys RESULT: Win REMAINING: 1:30

For a mausoleum, it may not be super creepy, but it does have the element of small spaces down pat.

Story

You enter a mausoleum in search of a powerful relic but someone or something is unwilling to part with the treasure, or you…

Not able to resist the call of a hauntingly good mystery, we have decided to enter a mausoleum in the middle of the night in hopes of coming back out with a magical artifact. If we succeed in finding this item of great importance, it will not be because the task was easy. We will have bested the mysterious presence that wishes to hold on to its existing collection and perhaps add us to it.

Tic Toc Escapes didn’t get too fancy with their story but did stick to it throughout the entire experience. From start to finish, the spooky theme remained present in everything we encountered and did.

Scenic

Overall, the scenic was fairly basic and could have been improved upon. The environment consisted of some spooky decorations and props, the centerpiece of which was a cobwebbed, wooden coffin secured with chains. While locked up tight as a drum, at the foot of the casket was an opening just big enough for a hand to reach into – not very safe from those graverobbers.

Other décor, which was not in great abundance, included a somber urn and some metal rings attached firmly to opposite walls. Although not completely obvious at first, we eventually discovered a small sword that we would use during the gameplay later on. On a primarily blank wall, a small crypt held its door and secrets steadfast.

Night at the Mausoleum was essentially a very tiny room, much like the five-minute closet-sized mini games we’ve seen at various haunt events. Our team of two had a bit of a challenge getting around in the small space, and we are grateful we did not have to find out what playing with the maximum of four people felt like.

Puzzles

Tic Toc Escapes certainly had teamwork in mind when they designed the game flow of Night at the Mausoleum. We had to communicate and work well together pretty much the whole time in order to progress to the next challenge. At one point, one of us could see inside the support base for the coffin, while the other could only feel and do the task at hand.

Early in the game, we opened a loose vent in the floor to explore its creepy offerings, only to find out that it was not part of the game. Oops. We assume the venue resolved the issue fairly quickly after our exit since we were one of the early groups to play once this adventure opened to the public.

When the time was right we earned our way into the crypt door, where we found the dreaded crossword puzzle, which at least pertained to haunt-themed objects found in the room. However, those items were out in plain sight for us to feast our eyes upon.

One of us had to work up the courage to reach inside the dark, creepy hole in the casket and describe and identify what creatures were inside. Easier said than done, but we managed to accomplish the task and complete the solution.

Overall

Night at the Mausoleum was a cute little room made in 2015 as a quick Halloween offering. Compared to other rooms of its day, it was a good room we enjoyed.

This venue is a family-run business, owned by a brother and sister who work very hard to create their games. While they may not have a huge budget to shower their rooms with lavishness, they do have the necessary passion it takes, and they dedicate themselves to offering a variety of good, solid games featuring fun in every moment that the clock winds down: tick tock, tick tock.